Egyptian protesters calling for the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi react as they watch his speech on a screen in a street leading to presidential palace early in Cairo on July 3, 2013. (AFP Photo / Mahmoud Khaled) / AFP

Political oppression, thousands of arbitrary arrests, “harrowing” incidents of torture and deaths in police custody: Amnesty International has warned of a “catastrophic decline in human rights” in the year since the ouster of President Morsi.

“Egypt’s notorious state security forces – currently known as
National Security – are back and operating at full capacity,
employing the same methods of torture and other ill-treatment
used during the darkest hours of the Mubarak era,” said
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director for the Middle East and
North Africa at Amnesty International.

“Despite repeated promises by current and former presidents
to respect the rule of law, over the past year flagrant
violations have continued at an astonishing rate, with security
forces effectively granted a free rein to commit human rights
violations with impunity.”

While exact figures are difficult to come by, The Associated
Press reported in March that at least 16,000 people had been
detained as part of a sweeping crackdown on supporters of Mohamed
Morsi, the conservative Islamist leader who was elected president
in 2012 and deposed in a military coup a year later.

WikiThawra, meanwhile, an initiative run by the Egyptian Center
for Economic and Social Rights, says that more than 40,000 people
have been detained or indicted between July 2013 and mid-May
2014.

At least 80 people have also died in police custody during that
period, WikiThawra says.

“The death at the hands of the police of Khaled Said in 2010,
a young man from Alexandria, was one of the driving forces behind
Egypt’s uprising. It is tragic that four years after his killing,
deaths in police custody in Egypt continue to occur on an
alarming scale,” said Hadj Sahraoui.

‘Repeatedly raped and tortured’

Graphic accounts of torture and rape have also surfaced and
appear to continue unabated.

Amnesty recounts the harrowing arrest of a student identified as
MRS, 23, a student who was arrested in February 2014 near Nasr
City in Cairo.

During the course of his 47-day detention, he claims to have been
tortured and raped during his interrogation.

“They cut my shirt, blindfolded me with it and handcuffed me
from behind… they beat me with batons all over my body,
particularly on the chest, back and face… Then they put two wires
in my left and right little fingers and gave me electric shocks
four or five times,” he said.

He also gave a graphic account of how he was sexually assaulted
and raped.

“The national security officer caught my testicle and started
to squeeze it… I was screaming from the pain and bent my legs to
protect my testicles then he inserted his fingers in my anus… he
was wearing something plastic on his fingers… he repeated this
five times,” he said.

He also reported being beaten on the penis with a stick. He was
then raped repeatedly by one or more security guards before being
forced to sing a song, “Teslam Al Ayadi,” in support of the
Egyptian army.

MRS has since been released from prison. His case is still
pending.

Another student, 18-year old Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Hussein,
reports being beaten, subjected to electric shocks, including on
the testicles, after being arrested on his way home on the third
anniversary of the 2011 uprising in El Mareg. Hussein, who says
he was forced into “confessing” to possessing explosives, remains
in prison.

In another case, Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, an 18-year-old
student, was arrested on his way home on the third anniversary of
the 2011 uprising in El Mareg, Cairo, at noon. He believes he was
singled out for wearing a shirt bearing a logo of the “25 January
Revolution” and a scarf with a slogan of the “Nation without
Torture” campaign. He was blindfolded and forced into
“confessing” to possessing explosives and belonging to the Muslim
Brotherhood after hours of being beaten, subjected to electric
shocks, including on the testicles, and being interrogated by
national security officers. He also remains in prison.

“Day after day harrowing accounts of torture are emerging
while the authorities flat out deny any abuse and go as far as
labeling Egyptian prisons as hotels,” Sahraoui said.

“If the Egyptian authorities wish to salvage any credibility,
such horrendous practices must be stopped immediately.”

‘Travesty of justice’

Last month, the New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch estimated
that at least 1,400 protesters had been killed in protests and
political violence since July 3, 2013, and “most likely
scores more.”

Security forces have been accused of repeatedly using excessive
and arbitrary force to disperse protests.

In April, 683 Muslim Brotherhood supporters loyal to ex-president
Morsi were sentenced to death in a widely criticized mass trial.
Of the 683, all but 110 were tried in absentia.

According to information gathered by Amnesty International, since
January 2014 Egypt’s criminal justice system has recommended the
death penalty for 1,247 men, pending the Grand Mufti’s religious
opinion, and upheld death sentences against 247 individuals. Many
of those decisions were handed down after “grossly
unfair” trials, HRW said.

Last week, United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay labeled
death penalty convictions and mass trials "obscene and a
complete travesty of justice."

In June, an Egyptian court confirmed 183 death sentences. The
scale of oppression was too much for some US lawmakers, who said
Cairo's "descent toward despotism" should force the US
to reconsider its $1.3 billion in annual military aid.

On 3 July 2013, exactly one year after he came to power in the
country's first democratic election, Morsi was ousted following
days of mass protest against his rule.

While Morsi was accused of backsliding on democracy, critics say
things have only gotten worse since the coup.

“Instead of addressing the urgent need for reform, Egyptian
authorities have spent the last year engaging in repression on a
scale unprecedented in Egypt’s modern history,” Sahraoui
said shortly after ex-Army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi won 96.9
percent of the votes in a presidential poll in which his main
opponents were either barred from standing, or withdrew their
candidacies.

Sabah Al-Mukhtar, head of the Arab Lawyers Association, told RT
that “Sisi is even worse than [longtime military ruler Hosni]
Mubarak.”

“He’s doing all the things that even Mubarak couldn’t do, in
terms of putting people in prison, in terms of prohibiting people
from even demonstrating. [Egypt’s] still going through turbulent
waters. I think that Sisi, by the end of the year, will probably
regret having accepted becoming president.”